FinEd Newsletter 1/2018

This is a FinEd Newsletter. Newsletters are sent to all members of the FinEd Network via contact persons in each member university and published on the FinEd website.

Greetings from the Head of the FinEd Network, Professor Kirsti Karila

The coordination of the FinEd Network was transferred to the University of Tampere since the beginning of the present year. As a new head of the network, I would like to thank the earlier coordination unit, the University of Turku, for the valuable contribution. Professor Risto Rinne and coordinator Sanna Niukko have been the key people in the coordination. We are lucky to have both of them also in the new board of the network. Thus, we can expect the transition to be fluid.

In 2018, we will continue to implement all the well-tried activities like the annual pre-seminar and the mentor pool. In addition, we aim to improve our international connections with the similar networks from other countries. The other issue we will focus is the communication. As a part of this project, we have renewed our webpages. The address of the new site is www.fined.fi.

The network forms and develops as a joint project of the doctoral students and their supervisors. We hope that all of you could sit down for a while and think about the network activities. How would you like to improve the network collaboration? Please, let coordinator Anneli Lehtisalo (anneli.lehtisalo@uta.fi) and head Kirsti Karila (Kirsti.karila@uta.fi) to know your ideas and initiatives.

The Annual Seminar of the FinEd Network, November 14, 2018, University of Tampere

The annual seminar of the FinEd Network will be organized as a pre-seminar to the FERA 2018 Conference, November 15−16 in Tampere. Further information on the seminar will follow in the next newsletter.

The Analysis on Educational Doctoral Dissertations 2010-2016

Päivi Atjonen and Sanna Niukko have conducted an analysis on educational doctoral dissertations of three Finnish universities from years 2010-2016. In the analysis, altogether 171 works were examined, and their form, scientific approaches, research materials, sources and grades were analyzed. Atjonen and Niukko end their article with suggestions for considerations which could be used to develop doctoral dissertations and good practices. The article ”Väitöskirja tohtorin kisällinnäytteenä: analyysi kolmen yliopiston kasvatustieteen alan väitöskirjoista vuosilta 2010−2016” was published in Koulutus hallinnassa. Juhlakirja professori Heikki Silvennoisen täyttäessä 60 vuotta 23.2.2018 (2018).

Upcoming Events and Conferences

Interactive Technology in Education (ITK) Conference 2018

Research career – a living dream? Eurodoc Conference 18–19 April 2018 University of Tampere

The conference is to focus on research careers and employability, doctoral training, international and intersectoral mobility, working conditions, equality, well-being and mental health, social impact of science and innovations, as well as researchers’ role in society from the perspective of early career researchers. Speakers represent Finnish and international actors research and higher education such as the European Commission, Science Europe, EUA-CDE, Academy of Finland, Euraxess, Mela, MCAA/MFCA, FUURT, universities and members of Eurodoc. Further information: http://www.eurodoc.net/conference-agm-2018.

Early Childhood Education, Families and Communities. European Early Childhood Education Research Association EECERA 2018 Conference, 28−31 August 2018, Budapest, Hungary

The summer school addresses the big decisions faced by all PhD students in the course of their PhD: the choice of the theories and theoretical concepts and their match to the chosen methodologies. The summer school provides PhD students an opportunity to present and get feedback on their own research as well as to meet senior researchers and other PhD students from the field of higher education research. The language of the summer school is English.

Participants of the summer school (18-20 persons) will be accepted based on relevance of the abstract to higher education research and the topic of the summer school as well as quality of it. Participation in the summer school is free of charge. Accommodation is offered free of charge for one night in two person room in hotel Alba, close to the summer school venue.

Important dates:
The deadline for the applications is 15th April 2018
Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 15th of May 2018
The participants are asked to submit the full papers (3-5 pages) by 1st of August 2018

The conference is organized by special interest group 1 of European Association of Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI). In the University of Helsinki the arrangements will be taken care of by the Centre for Educational Assessment (CEA).

The Keynote speakers are Samuel Greiff, Dr., Professor in the University of Luxembourg, Benő Csapó, Professor of Education at the University of Szeged, and Dragan Gašević PhD, Professor and Chair in Learning Analytics and Informatics, University of Edinburgh. The registration is open. Early bird –prices until April 30th.

Inclusion and Exclusion, Resources for Educational Research? The European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) 3.-7.9.2018, Free University Bolzano, Italy

Virtue, Truth and Beauty in Education. FERA Conference 15-16 November 2018, University of Tampere

The theme of the conference is Virtue, Truth and Beauty in Education. The task of education is to create hope and trust in the value and significance of life. The goal of education requires an understanding of what humans are and what they are like, what we consider valuable in human growth, and from what grounds and which sources this value is determined. Each generation must resolve their relationship with the problem of humanity and construe their relationship to the essence of education: virtue, truth and beauty. Our time has to reflect on the issues related to valuable human life in the midst of global vicious problems. What challenges do these problems pose on education? At the FERA Conference on Education, these challenges will be discussed and solutions are tried to find to them.

The keynote speakers are the eminent philosopher-educationalist Professor Zhang Hua from Nanjing Normal University of China and Artist-Director Marita Liulia from Finland. Further information: https://events.uta.fi/feraconference2018/.

Transnational Curriculum Inquiry: Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing World. 6th World Curriculum Studies Conference, 9.-12.12.2018, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia